What inspired you to pursue music education, was that always the case?
Was there ever a moment you felt like giving up and how did you keep yourself motivated?
I did not come to being a music teacher right away. As a boy soprano I took intensive vocal lessons and piano lessons, and was fortunate enough to have a lot of performing opportunities, including live performances, musicals, television shows, and radio performances. I even had my own Christmas special in Newfoundland where I grew up called “Jamie’s Old Fashioned Christmas”. So, given all that, I was completely positive I was going to become a performer. Then the unthinkable happened. My voice changed, and it didn’t just change, it broke. All the things that had come so naturally to me, were now very difficult for me to do. My voice simply put, just would not obey me, it had lost its tone, and its ability to be free and amble. But I kept on singing and insisted on studying voice at the Post Secondary Level. At just 18 years old I was accepted into the Voice Performance degree at the University of Toronto, albeit late and on “conditional” acceptance as they and I both knew I wasn’t really ready. It was a tough four years vocally, but things continued to slowly improve. But it was obvious that it was going to be well into my 20s until my voice settled back and regained it’s former strength and I could get the music in me out. It is also important to note that although I had many great experiences as a youth, my knowledge of vocal technique was very limited and I found the many different approaches to singing in University just confused me even more.
So, with all that, why didn’t I just give up? The answer is easy to put into one word: choir. Because I was a voice performance student, I was automatically chosen as as a tenor in the top U of T choir, then conducted by one of my musical mentors, Robert Cooper. Although I had sung in church choir, never in my life before these choir rehearsals and performances, had I been exposed to such incredible repertoire and such high excellence in singing. I was instantly hooked and was learning so much about the voice in those rehearsals. In my second year I tried my hand at conducting classes, and it turned out that I was a complete natural at it, although I have learned so much about this craft over the past 25 years, it did come easy to me initially where others struggled with it. Around the same time, I decided to volunteer as a pianist at an Elementary school in Toronto where Jean Ashworth Bartle, the former conductor of the Toronto Children’s Chorus, conducted choirs. I had no idea you could spend your days with music in this way, and get paid for it! I was so inspired by her teaching and by the music classroom, I instantly saw how music teaching and choral conducting were completely intertwined. All that music I had in me, that I couldn’t get out, could be imparted to the kids through my hands. It was love at first downbeat!
What are your goals and why?
First of all, I think it is vital as a music teacher to have goals. You have to keep evolving and changing, you must keep learning. With just over 6 years left in my teaching career, I want to be learning just as much in my final year as I am learning right now, which it lots! Because I have spent so many years perfecting the art of teaching the voice to sing properly, of expressing yourself through choral music, of conducting well and unobtrusively, my current goals might surprise you. What I want for students more than anything now, is to develop a love of music and a love of singing and the choral classroom. I want it to be a place of safety and comfort for students, where the cares of the world can be put aside, and we can work on expressing what is inside on the outside. I want it to be fun! I think it is linked to both mental health and to achievement. I believe in every fiber of my body, that it is my PURPOSE to create a healthy and loving environment for my students, it my job to be kind and nice to them. This does not mean I sacrifice quality, as a matter of fact, I am seeing the complete opposite occur. The more in touch we are with each other, the more in touch we are with ourselves through the music, the better the music sounds, the more we are in unity musically and otherwise. The more we care for each other, the more we want to sing well for each other. I in turn am experiencing better mental health as a result, as I learn to not sweat the small stuff, to trust the students and the process, to lighten the stress load, and to focus on the experience over the award or the reward. I am getting there…
What are your ideas on teaching? How do you shape your lessons to suit the group of individuals and why?
I have so many ideas about teaching, I can’t go through them all here, so I am going to state what I think the most important part of “lessons” are, and what is the PURPOSE of my teaching. You may be surprised to find that many of my colleagues do not agree with me on this. Many classrooms and curriculums are structured as follows: There is the KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS the teacher wishes to impart, the students partake of that knowledge, and then they have to pass some kind of “test” to show if they know/can do that knowledge or skill. I agree with this part, and do things this way myself often. Where I differ is what happens when a student cannot meet these expectations. Many teachers feel that in order to prepare students for the “real world”, they have to toughen up, they have to learn to meet the expectations set for them, and if they do not, well too bad, there will be another test, good luck on it. The problem with failure in music is, there is now a skill/knowledge piece the student is MISSING. When they contribute to the whole… the choir, the band, their limitations now effect others. So, for the good of the group, I must take the weakest students and bring them up close to the level of the strongest students, and it takes hours of my time to do so. But this results in high averages in my classes. It is actually called “mastery teaching”, but many of my colleagues feel we just ‘give away’ marks in music to attract kids to our courses. This could not be farther from the truth. We demand students achieve high results because they are “accountable” to others for their achievement, and their achievement effects others. I EXPECT my students to get high results, that is why our groups get high results. What it has done to my philosophy of teaching is interesting. I believe in second, third, fourth chances at tests. I believe it’s never too late to resubmit an assignment that demonstrates the learning, it’s the fact that they LEARNED it that matters, regardless of the time it took to do so. I don’t take off marks for late assignments very often, especially if the student is really trying, I believe EFFORT really matters, because not everyone learns the same way. I struggled myself, and people took the time to inspire and help me become an award winning musician, so it is my JOB to pay that forward to my students. My JOB is see them succeed, no matter what, full stop.
What was your worst teaching experience and why? Did it affect you in anyway and how did you overcome it?
I have several. As an Elementary teacher I am not proud of how I used to lose my temper in my first few years of teaching. I once burst into another teacher’s classroom, while they were teaching, and demanded a student leave with me to be yelled at. I was so fortunate that the teacher who was teaching the class set me good and straight privately afterward. I will be forever grateful to Mrs. Savage for taking me to task for that behavior towards a student and that disrespect for her classroom, it was a complete turning point for me as a teacher. Oh how I have grown since then!
I have had several bad musical experiences, including the time my choir was publically disqualified from the Kiwanis Music Festival, because we used the spoons in a folk piece! But one of my worst musical experiences happened in my first year of teaching at Agincourt C. I.. It demonstrates that there is always so much more to know about music. I had only been teaching music for 10 years when I came to ACI, but I had conducted in some incredible circles by that time, even a chorus for the National Ballet of Canada! I thought I knew it all. When I arrived I learned that the choirs at ACI always went to the Kiwanis music festival so I booked them in. The Grade 9/10 Concert Choir was learning “Away From The Roll Of The Sea’, a lovely choral piece in ¾ time. When we got to the festival and performed it, I felt we had done very well. Our adjudicator got up (Mr. Mark Sirrett) and asked if I knew anyone from the East Coast. Being from Newfoundland I kind of smiled and said yes quietly. He then demonstrated how if I had taught and conducted the piece in a feel of 1 beat per bar instead of the heavy 3 I was conducting, the imagery of the waves rolling in and out would be completely accomplished in a bar1 – bar2 – bar3 (being the biggest wave) and bar4 being softer as the wave falls away. So… four bar phrases basically?! It was so glaringly obvious musically, I felt like a complete stupid idiot! He gave us a mark well below our competition and third place. It was a pretty public schooling and very humbling as a musician. But again, I am very grateful that he did so and I have gone on to perform many of his arrangements and have great respect for his coaching. I went back to ACI determined to be a better musician. Everywhere I went that year with the choirs I got the same information from adjudicators, that I was capable of being better, that I thought I was better than I was, and that I had a LOT to learn. It turns out, they were right!
What was your memorable teaching moment and why?
My most memorable teaching moment, was the winning of the Ed Bolsby Trophy for best High School group in the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival in 2012. We had been chosen to enter this competition twice before and had been soundly beaten by groups from Arts schools whose music is so beautifully performed and expressed. We were just some kids from Scarborough, but had worked so hard to raise our game to the level of those other programs, and we were performing Lux Arumque by Eric Whitacre! The students performed it exquisitely that night. It was very rewarding to receive this trophy, as we fought hard for it, and we knew we deserved it that year. But the reason it was such a memorable moment was because the students were all upstairs in a practice room awaiting the results, and they didn’t get to see who won! I was the one who was allowed to carry the trophy back upstairs and into the practice room and present it to the choir. There were many tears and hugs and cheers that evening, it was an absolutely wonderful moment for me, the kids and for ACI.
What does it mean, to be a "better" musician.
This one is simple. You are only on a journey of becoming a “better” musician, if:
you feel you know less than someone else
you know someone else is better than you at your craft
you know that you are replaceable
you are hungry for the knowledge of how to get better
you seek out new knowledge and try new approaches
you can say “I was wrong, I am sorry, I will fix it”
you maintain your humility and stay humble
you are there to serve the music and the kids, and you don’t think the music is there to serve your own personal ego
you are improving, i.e. you know are at least better than you were before at some point
Was there ever a moment you felt like giving up and how did you keep yourself motivated?
I did not come to being a music teacher right away. As a boy soprano I took intensive vocal lessons and piano lessons, and was fortunate enough to have a lot of performing opportunities, including live performances, musicals, television shows, and radio performances. I even had my own Christmas special in Newfoundland where I grew up called “Jamie’s Old Fashioned Christmas”. So, given all that, I was completely positive I was going to become a performer. Then the unthinkable happened. My voice changed, and it didn’t just change, it broke. All the things that had come so naturally to me, were now very difficult for me to do. My voice simply put, just would not obey me, it had lost its tone, and its ability to be free and amble. But I kept on singing and insisted on studying voice at the Post Secondary Level. At just 18 years old I was accepted into the Voice Performance degree at the University of Toronto, albeit late and on “conditional” acceptance as they and I both knew I wasn’t really ready. It was a tough four years vocally, but things continued to slowly improve. But it was obvious that it was going to be well into my 20s until my voice settled back and regained it’s former strength and I could get the music in me out. It is also important to note that although I had many great experiences as a youth, my knowledge of vocal technique was very limited and I found the many different approaches to singing in University just confused me even more.
So, with all that, why didn’t I just give up? The answer is easy to put into one word: choir. Because I was a voice performance student, I was automatically chosen as as a tenor in the top U of T choir, then conducted by one of my musical mentors, Robert Cooper. Although I had sung in church choir, never in my life before these choir rehearsals and performances, had I been exposed to such incredible repertoire and such high excellence in singing. I was instantly hooked and was learning so much about the voice in those rehearsals. In my second year I tried my hand at conducting classes, and it turned out that I was a complete natural at it, although I have learned so much about this craft over the past 25 years, it did come easy to me initially where others struggled with it. Around the same time, I decided to volunteer as a pianist at an Elementary school in Toronto where Jean Ashworth Bartle, the former conductor of the Toronto Children’s Chorus, conducted choirs. I had no idea you could spend your days with music in this way, and get paid for it! I was so inspired by her teaching and by the music classroom, I instantly saw how music teaching and choral conducting were completely intertwined. All that music I had in me, that I couldn’t get out, could be imparted to the kids through my hands. It was love at first downbeat!
What are your goals and why?
First of all, I think it is vital as a music teacher to have goals. You have to keep evolving and changing, you must keep learning. With just over 6 years left in my teaching career, I want to be learning just as much in my final year as I am learning right now, which it lots! Because I have spent so many years perfecting the art of teaching the voice to sing properly, of expressing yourself through choral music, of conducting well and unobtrusively, my current goals might surprise you. What I want for students more than anything now, is to develop a love of music and a love of singing and the choral classroom. I want it to be a place of safety and comfort for students, where the cares of the world can be put aside, and we can work on expressing what is inside on the outside. I want it to be fun! I think it is linked to both mental health and to achievement. I believe in every fiber of my body, that it is my PURPOSE to create a healthy and loving environment for my students, it my job to be kind and nice to them. This does not mean I sacrifice quality, as a matter of fact, I am seeing the complete opposite occur. The more in touch we are with each other, the more in touch we are with ourselves through the music, the better the music sounds, the more we are in unity musically and otherwise. The more we care for each other, the more we want to sing well for each other. I in turn am experiencing better mental health as a result, as I learn to not sweat the small stuff, to trust the students and the process, to lighten the stress load, and to focus on the experience over the award or the reward. I am getting there…
What are your ideas on teaching? How do you shape your lessons to suit the group of individuals and why?
I have so many ideas about teaching, I can’t go through them all here, so I am going to state what I think the most important part of “lessons” are, and what is the PURPOSE of my teaching. You may be surprised to find that many of my colleagues do not agree with me on this. Many classrooms and curriculums are structured as follows: There is the KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS the teacher wishes to impart, the students partake of that knowledge, and then they have to pass some kind of “test” to show if they know/can do that knowledge or skill. I agree with this part, and do things this way myself often. Where I differ is what happens when a student cannot meet these expectations. Many teachers feel that in order to prepare students for the “real world”, they have to toughen up, they have to learn to meet the expectations set for them, and if they do not, well too bad, there will be another test, good luck on it. The problem with failure in music is, there is now a skill/knowledge piece the student is MISSING. When they contribute to the whole… the choir, the band, their limitations now effect others. So, for the good of the group, I must take the weakest students and bring them up close to the level of the strongest students, and it takes hours of my time to do so. But this results in high averages in my classes. It is actually called “mastery teaching”, but many of my colleagues feel we just ‘give away’ marks in music to attract kids to our courses. This could not be farther from the truth. We demand students achieve high results because they are “accountable” to others for their achievement, and their achievement effects others. I EXPECT my students to get high results, that is why our groups get high results. What it has done to my philosophy of teaching is interesting. I believe in second, third, fourth chances at tests. I believe it’s never too late to resubmit an assignment that demonstrates the learning, it’s the fact that they LEARNED it that matters, regardless of the time it took to do so. I don’t take off marks for late assignments very often, especially if the student is really trying, I believe EFFORT really matters, because not everyone learns the same way. I struggled myself, and people took the time to inspire and help me become an award winning musician, so it is my JOB to pay that forward to my students. My JOB is see them succeed, no matter what, full stop.
What was your worst teaching experience and why? Did it affect you in anyway and how did you overcome it?
I have several. As an Elementary teacher I am not proud of how I used to lose my temper in my first few years of teaching. I once burst into another teacher’s classroom, while they were teaching, and demanded a student leave with me to be yelled at. I was so fortunate that the teacher who was teaching the class set me good and straight privately afterward. I will be forever grateful to Mrs. Savage for taking me to task for that behavior towards a student and that disrespect for her classroom, it was a complete turning point for me as a teacher. Oh how I have grown since then!
I have had several bad musical experiences, including the time my choir was publically disqualified from the Kiwanis Music Festival, because we used the spoons in a folk piece! But one of my worst musical experiences happened in my first year of teaching at Agincourt C. I.. It demonstrates that there is always so much more to know about music. I had only been teaching music for 10 years when I came to ACI, but I had conducted in some incredible circles by that time, even a chorus for the National Ballet of Canada! I thought I knew it all. When I arrived I learned that the choirs at ACI always went to the Kiwanis music festival so I booked them in. The Grade 9/10 Concert Choir was learning “Away From The Roll Of The Sea’, a lovely choral piece in ¾ time. When we got to the festival and performed it, I felt we had done very well. Our adjudicator got up (Mr. Mark Sirrett) and asked if I knew anyone from the East Coast. Being from Newfoundland I kind of smiled and said yes quietly. He then demonstrated how if I had taught and conducted the piece in a feel of 1 beat per bar instead of the heavy 3 I was conducting, the imagery of the waves rolling in and out would be completely accomplished in a bar1 – bar2 – bar3 (being the biggest wave) and bar4 being softer as the wave falls away. So… four bar phrases basically?! It was so glaringly obvious musically, I felt like a complete stupid idiot! He gave us a mark well below our competition and third place. It was a pretty public schooling and very humbling as a musician. But again, I am very grateful that he did so and I have gone on to perform many of his arrangements and have great respect for his coaching. I went back to ACI determined to be a better musician. Everywhere I went that year with the choirs I got the same information from adjudicators, that I was capable of being better, that I thought I was better than I was, and that I had a LOT to learn. It turns out, they were right!
What was your memorable teaching moment and why?
My most memorable teaching moment, was the winning of the Ed Bolsby Trophy for best High School group in the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival in 2012. We had been chosen to enter this competition twice before and had been soundly beaten by groups from Arts schools whose music is so beautifully performed and expressed. We were just some kids from Scarborough, but had worked so hard to raise our game to the level of those other programs, and we were performing Lux Arumque by Eric Whitacre! The students performed it exquisitely that night. It was very rewarding to receive this trophy, as we fought hard for it, and we knew we deserved it that year. But the reason it was such a memorable moment was because the students were all upstairs in a practice room awaiting the results, and they didn’t get to see who won! I was the one who was allowed to carry the trophy back upstairs and into the practice room and present it to the choir. There were many tears and hugs and cheers that evening, it was an absolutely wonderful moment for me, the kids and for ACI.
What does it mean, to be a "better" musician.
This one is simple. You are only on a journey of becoming a “better” musician, if:
you feel you know less than someone else
you know someone else is better than you at your craft
you know that you are replaceable
you are hungry for the knowledge of how to get better
you seek out new knowledge and try new approaches
you can say “I was wrong, I am sorry, I will fix it”
you maintain your humility and stay humble
you are there to serve the music and the kids, and you don’t think the music is there to serve your own personal ego
you are improving, i.e. you know are at least better than you were before at some point